台灣反韓情緒與韓流狂熱：台灣韓流迷研究 - 政大學術集成

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(1). Living among Enthusiasm and Antagonism: A Study of Korean Wave Fans in Taiwan Josephine K. Liu. 治 International Master’s Program Communication Studies 政 in International. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. National Chengchi University. ‧. January 13, 2015. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 1. i Un. v.

(2) . 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 2. i Un. v.

(3) . Table of Contents Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………..5 Abstract………………………………………………………………………….6 Chinese Abstract………………………………………………………………...8 1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………..9 1.1 Research Background……………………………………………………….9 1.2 Past Research on Korean Wave Fans………………………………………..12 2. Literature Review……………………………………………………………..16 政治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. 2.1 An Overview of Korean Wave………………………………………………16. ‧. 2.2 East Asian Popular Culture………………………………………………….20. y. Nat. er. io. sit. 2.3 Seeking East Asia in Korean Wave…………………………………………25. n. a l Wave…………………………………..26 v 2.4 Cultural Hybridization and Korean ni Ch. engchi U. 2.5 Taiwan-South Korea Relations……………………………………………..32 2.6 The Overwhelming Korean Wave in Taiwan………………………………33 2.7 Taiwanese Nationalistic Antagonism towards South Korea……………….35 2.8 Cultural Hybridization as Resolution………………………………………39 3. Research Method…………………………………………………………….41 3.1 Participants…………………………………………………………………41 3.2 Interviews…………………………………………………………………..43. 3.

(4) . 4. Living between Enthusiasm and Antagonism……………………………...46 4.1 Alternation of East Asian Popular Cultures in Taiwan……………………46 4.2 Understanding South Korea Better………………………………………...52 4.3 Confrontations in Family: Father, Male Family Members and Elders…….63 4.4 Peer Group Pressure………………………………………………………..67 4.5 Strategies for Confrontation………………………………………………..68 5. Media Discourses of Antagonism and Fan-girls of Korean Wave…………..72 5.1 Why Do They Always Want to Win………………………………………..72 政治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. 5.2 The Biggest Enemy…………………………………………………………76. ‧. 5.3 A Fan or not a Fan……………………………………..……………………80. y. Nat. er. io. sit. 5.4 A Completed Story on the Taiwanese News Media………..……………….82. n. a l it or Hate it…………..……………….84 v 5.5 The Bipolarizing Atmosphere: Love ni Ch. engchi U. 6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………87 6.1 The Difficulties of Communication………...………………………………..87 6.2 Petty Nationalism………………………..…………………………………..90 6.3 Limitations: Male Consumers of Korean Wave..……………………………92 References.……………………………………………………………………….94 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………106. 4.

(5) . Acknowledgement I would like to express my thanks to my supervisor, Yu-Fen Ko, for her constant guidance, patience and encouragement. I would also like to thank professor Chang-De Liu and Eva Tsai for giving me so much help and advisement in refining the content and English academic writing. Enormous gratitude to all my interviewees, namely Tang, Cher, Pin, Punctum, Kristy, Claire, Lualua, Vanessa, Gladys, Naomi, Ruby and Yuki. I can’t finish my research without their sharing of their personal experience.政 Finally,治 I would like to express my gratitude to my. 大. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. parents, my sister and my friends, for their support and encouragement at all times.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 5. i Un. v.

(6) . Abstract Taiwan and South Korea have a long-time history competing with each other in sports and industries. Due to these competitions, most Taiwanese people dislike South Korea. However, in the two recent decades, the Korean Wave has gradually become globally recognized and has won a place in the Taiwanese market. In Taiwan, the hype of the Korean Wave can be seen from music programs on TV to the discussion forums on the Internet. Korean Wave fans, most of whom are female, have been portrayed in a maniacal and negative政 way in治 the meddled coverage by Taiwanese media.. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. These fans not only need to endure discrimination by the media, but also in their daily. ‧. interactions with other people who hold anti-Korean attitudes. This study intends to discuss. y. Nat. er. io. sit. how Korean Wave fans confront anti-Korean attitudes in their daily experiences.. n. a l female fans, the i vstudy has found, first, that even Through the interviews of twelve n Ch. engchi U. though these fans learned valuable knowledge about South Korea during their participation in the Korean Wave, that great amount of knowledge is difficult to share or persuade the antiKorean people who confront them. Second, the nationalistic antagonism towards South Korea has surged in Taiwan for decades, yet, there is no specific historic reason for Taiwanese people to be hostile towards South Korea. Under this circumstance, the nationalistic antagonism toward South Korea in Taiwan still existed as a kind of collective memory from generation to generation thanks to. 6.

(7) . the news media. For those anti-Korean Taiwanese, the nationalistic antagonism may serve as a kind of petty nationalism that expresses their anxiety in facing and competing with South Korea.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 7. i Un. v.

(8) . 中文摘要. 台灣與韓國過去曾多年在經濟產業與運動競賽交手，也因雙方在各層面的競合關係，導致大多數的台灣民眾對韓國觀感較差，然而此一情況在近二十年來因為韓國流行文化「韓流」進入台灣以後有所改變。在台灣，韓流帶來的熱潮無所不在，從網上論壇的討論到電視螢幕上的瘋狂播放可見一斑。然而對於大多數以女性為主的韓流迷族群，在韓流熱潮中卻被媒體描述為瘋狂、失去理智的受害者，在日常生活中也必須面對來自他者的敵意。為進一步探討此一現象，本研究將著眼於研究女性韓流迷在日常生活中面對反韓情緒的經驗，了解政治. ‧ 國. 學. 她們的應對策略。. 大. 立. ‧. 透過與 12 位女性韓流迷訪談，本研究發現：首先，即使女性韓流迷透過參與、. y. Nat. er. io. sit. 消費韓流文化學習到相當可觀與韓國有關的知識，但卻難以將此一知識與反韓他者分. n. al 享；再者，即便雙方並無直接交戰或其他歷史上敵對的背景，台灣的反韓情緒主要來 iv Ch. n engchi U. 自於媒體不斷操作的結果，形成代代相傳的集體意識；最後，對於反韓群眾而言，反韓情緒就像是一種「微型國族主義」，即使雙方無真正交戰敵對關係，卻能供給台灣反韓群眾抒發與韓國競爭所帶來的焦慮一處出口。. 8.

(9) . Chapter 1 Introduction. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Research Background. 政治大. ‧. During the broadcasting of the game between Taiwan and South Korea in the World. y. Nat. er. io. sit. Baseball Classic 2013, an anchorman burst into tears and loudly cried: “I really wish we. n. v (Taiwan) could beat South Korea!a l(Ettoday, 2013)” “To n i beat South Korea” is not only Ch. engchi U. expressed desire in sports but also a desire shared by high-tech industry in Taiwan (Shih, 2014). Due to the similarity in the process of industrial development and historical background, it is easy to see a competitive discourse between South Korea and Taiwan in the mainstream media. Some competitions may even later turn into bilateral or even multinational lawsuits. Typically, the mainstream media covers these lawsuits with condemnation towards South Korea. For example, a Taiwanese official was quoted for saying, “It’s not a good way to do. 9.

(10) . business, Samsung really crossed the line this time!” (Nownews, 2010). According to some unchecked news stories, South Korea had claimed some Chinese historical figures and traditions originated from Korea made Taiwanese people prefer South Korea even less (Chang & Jiang, 2008). This kind of news is mostly rumors, however, this has built a bad impression of South Korea in Taiwan. South Korea often had a controversial presence in international sport events. The most well-known incident occurred during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The 2002 FIFA World Cup. 治most refereeing errors in history. Most of had been remembered as the World Cup 政 with the. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. these refereeing errors were related to South Korea, one of the two co-hosting countries.. ‧. Despite the lack of proof, the rumor that South Korea had bribed the referees spread like. y. Nat. er. io. sit. wildfire and was reported by Taiwanese media. Even though Taiwanese delegation didn’t. n. v take part in the 2002 FIFA World aCup, l Taiwanese media n i has reinforced the stereotype of Ch. engchi U. South Korea as “bribers” and “cheaters”. Every time Taiwanese delegations had met South Korea in different occasion of sport event, the anti-Korea discourses from netizens would soon emerge on the news media (Ko, 2009; Liu, 2010). Long-time competitions in high-tech industries and sports as well as the unverified news reports caused most Taiwanese to hold an anti-Korean attitude. Many irrational people in Taiwan even claim that they hate Korea, and they always use derogatory words to refer to Koreans in many open online forums.. 10.

(11) . Under this kind of atmosphere, Korean pop culture still manages to enter Taiwan via all sorts of products. It first started in the 1990s, when the Taiwanese pop music companies bought some pop songs from Korea and reproduced them with Chinese lyrics. Following the success of this practice, some Korean idol groups have been introduced to Taiwan as well, like H.O.T., Shinwa, and S.E.S. In the late 1990s, after the Korean drama “Fireworks” captured high ratings in Taiwan and due to the limited budget in producing their own content, the Taiwanese TV channels started buying Korean dramas to air. Korean drama not only won. 治 and many countries in Southeast Asia. high popularity in Taiwan but also in Japan, 政 China. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Also, the phenomenon caused by the Korean pop music and the Korean drama later will be. ‧. known as Korean Wave. Korean Wave is well-known across Asia thanks to Korean drama.. y. Nat. er. io. sit. Still, the name of Korean Wave in Chinese, “the cold wave”, actually implies a negative. n. meaning (Li, 2013; Noh, 2010; Liao,a l2013).. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. Recently in 2009 and 2012, Korean pop music had twice triggered trends around the world. After the hype brought by Super Junior and Psy, Korean pop music has become globally recognized and has also won a place in the market of Taiwan. The hype of Korean pop music can be seen from music programs on TV to the discussion forums on the Internet. Every time there is a Korean singer or idol group visiting Taiwan, there would be crowded fans in the airport to welcome them (Li, 2013; Liao 2013).. 11.

(12) . These fans, mostly teenage girls or women in their thirties or forties, have been portrayed in a fanatic and negative way in the meddle coverage by Taiwanese media (Yang, 2008; Kuo, 2007). These Korean wave fans not only need to endure discrimination by the media, but also in their daily interactions with other people that hold anti-Korea attitudes. I intend to discuss how Korean Wave fans confront anti-Korean attitudes in their daily experience. Past Research on Korean Wave Fans. 治 with Korean Wave fans in Taiwan: There are two major kinds of research 政 dealing. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. research on Korean drama audiences and the research on K-pop fans. The studies about. ‧. audiences of Korean drama often applied the research tradition of romance novels due to the. y. Nat. er. io. sit. similarities: the content of romance and family issues and the majority of the audience being. n. a l the research tradition v women. These studies have followed n i to see what experience these Ch. engchi U. female audience members learned and gained from the Korean drama. Most of these studies believed that the popularity of Korean drama in Taiwan is due to the cultural similarity between Taiwanese and Korean culture (Tsai, 2006; Liu, 2004; Kuo, 2007; Chen, 2008). As for the studies of K-pop fans, there are two kinds of subjects which are seen very often. The first kind looks at how these fans create a group identity; the other is about their practices as fans. Firstly, for creating group identity, most of this research focus on one. 12.

(13) . particular idol fan group and see how these fans form mutual and universal recognition of their group identity in some online fan groups or virtual communities. In the case of Taiwan, there are many master theses, which focus on fan identity formation, especially the fandom of Super Junior, and Girls’ Generation. For instance, Chiou (2012) focused on Girl’s Generation’s fans in Taiwan and how their activities online had strengthened their group identity as fans. Mei (2013) conducted an exploratory study to examine the imagined relationship and affection between Super Junior and their fans. Secondly, since every fan may have own way to develop their group identity as 政their 治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. fans, there are many different practices to be seen and examined in the research. For instance,. ‧. inspired by Korean fans, Taiwanese fans applied similar ways to show their support for the. y. Nat. er. io. sit. idols. The common ways include to sing or shout synchronized cheers at the concerts and to. n. a l 2013). And Li (2013) v do charity in their idols’ names (Chen, studied how fans of Girl’s ni Ch. engchi U. Generation learn to dance by watching their music videos and writing blog entries to teach others to put on the same make-up as Girl’s Generation. Huang (2013) studied how young female K-pop fans reformulate ideas of femininity via their performance of cover dance. Several other studies here pointed out the tension between those people who hold antiKorea/fear-Korea attitude and those Korean pop culture lovers. Jiang (2004) presented a perspective to explore the Korean drama audience. In her research, she argued that the Korean pop culture had faced more challenges than any pop culture from other countries. 13.

(14) . because Taiwanese had chaotic recognition towards their own cultural tradition and identity with the Chinese heritage. Jiang’s analysis located Taiwanese audience in such a dilemma. The chaotic recognition caused Korean pop culture lovers experienced both anti-Korean emotion in the society and their own inner anxiety of about not being devoted enough towards their national identity. Liu (2004) and Chen (2008) both found the anti-Korea attitude would hinder the audience from watching Korean drama. Korean drama audience often encountered unfriendly. 治 the successful case of the globalization response when sharing their experience. In 政reviewing. 大. 立. ‧ 國. ‧. ideoscapes here in Taiwan.. 學. of K-pop, Park (2012) found out that there is anti-Korean ideology existing inside the. y. Nat. er. io. sit. Lin (2012) argued that because Taiwan had difficulties in earning recognition in the. n. a l from many international v affairs, therefore, Taiwanese international society and being rejected ni Ch. engchi U. people required strong and repeated discourses to build their confidence and recognition of their own nation. Since the sports are a domain where Taiwanese may strengthen their recognition towards Taiwan, imaging South Korea as an enemy may help to strengthen the recognition of Taiwanese identity. Many studies have explored the confused fascination existing in the fans of Korean wave and causes of tension between the fans and anti-Korean pundits. Yet, none of these. 14.

(15) . studies tried to further explore the strategies or the tactics that these fans had applied to cope in their daily life with confrontation. Jiang found most of the studies who focused fans of Korean pop culture had taken fans and their enthusiasm towards Korean pop culture for granted; the potential anxiety towards cultural identity coexisting with their enthusiasm has been ignored (2004: 172). Thus, I will focus on the coexistence of the cultural identity and their enthusiasm as Korean Wave fans to understand their response towards the anti-Korean people.. 治 consumers of Korean wave in order to In my thesis, I interviewed Taiwanese 政 female. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. discover whether the previous findings of anxiety towards culture identity is still a problem. ‧. for them. Furthermore, I explored how these consumers viewed and dealt with the anti-. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. Korean people and attitudes expressed online and in the news media.. Ch. engchi. 15. i Un. v.

(16) . Chapter 2 Literature Review. 立. ‧ 國. 學. An Overview of Korean Wave. 政治大. ‧. Korean Wave was first named by the Chinese media in 1997 to refer to the border-. y. Nat. er. io. sit. crossing consumption of South Korean popular culture. Afterwards, the Korean pop culture,. n. v including films, online games, popamusic and TV dramas, l n i began to enter other East Asian Ch. engchi U. markets like Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan (Chua & Iwabuchi, 2008). Moreover, from 2011 onwards the Korean popular music, has become popular in the U.S., Latin America and Europe thanks to the help of the Internet, claimed by Kim (2013). Even though there are many aspects in Korean Wave, I would focus on Korean TV dramas and popular music due to the fact that these two areas of Korean popular culture were complementary in their developing processes.. 16.

(17) . The penetration of Korean TV drama to other East Asian markets was due to its low syndication fees in comparison with its counterpart of Japan in the late 1990s. The Financial Crisis in 1997 forced the Korean TV drama production companies to sell their products abroad. The same crisis also stimulated other East Asian markets to look for cheaper content for their cable television channels to broadcast (Chua & Iwabuchi, 2008). Surprisingly, the cheap Korean TV drama won popularity among many East Asian markets because of its impressive-looking production. According to Cho (2011) in Vietnam,. 治1997 to 1999; in Taiwan, the Korean TV 14 Korean TV dramas had been broadcasted 政 from. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. drama Autumn Tale won the highest viewership in 2001. The leading actors and actresses of. ‧. Korean TV drama had also become popular. For example, the drama Winter Sonata and its. y. Nat. er. io. sit. leading actor Bae Yong-Jun brought the famous “Yonsanma phenomenon” to Japan in 2004.. n. v Many middle-aged women became ahuge l fans of Bae Yong-Jun n i after watching Winter Sonata Ch. engchi U. (Mori, 2008). Nowadays, the Korean TV drama is still an undeniably important component of Korean Wave, since it took 90% of all exported TV programs of South Korea in 2011 (Kim, 2013). Korean pop music has been exported abroad around the same time as Korean drama in the late 1990s, yet, until the mid-1990s, Korean pop music was essentially domestic and border-crossing practices were rare. In 1997, the Korean music industry encountered a devastating depression because the IMF crisis had almost destroyed the entire industry. Two. 17.

(18) . strategies have come to mind for the industry to revive from the destruction. The first is digitalization, that is, turning their products from selling hard disc CDs into selling mp3 files online. The other is Asianization, which means to export their products to other Asian markets. After receiving success from other markets, the Korean music industry began to develop what was to be called “border-crossing” characteristics in their products. Multiple languages, whether in the lyrics or the bilingual ability of the singers have become important. Border-crossing production with Japan and US has also become common (Siriyuvasak & Shin, 2007).. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Most of the successful icons in the Korean Wave are products from the “star. ‧. manufacturing system”, the huge entertainment companies and their training process, in. y. Nat. er. io. sit. South Korea (Shin, 2009:509). For instance, the idol group Super Junior and Girl’s. n. al v Generation are from S.M. Entertainment; rapper Psy with n i his globally hit song Gangnam Ch. engchi U. Style is from YG Entertainment. These huge companies possessed many resources that can be used to promote their singers, including cooperation with international music industry. With the cooperation, these companies managed to introduce their singers and products to other markets. For example, in the early 2000s, the female singer BoA from S.M. Entertainment was trained in South Korea and introduced to Japan by the Japanese music company AVEX. She has remained a successful popular singer in both countries until today (Shin, 2009).. 18.

(19) . South Korean government played a significant role in promoting the Korean Wave. In the very beginning stage of Korean Wave, the initial success of Korean Wave inspired a boost in Korea both in the economic and the national prestige after the great declination in the financial crisis in 1997. Hence, the Korean government has tried hard to sustain the prosperity of Korean Wave by taking a proactive policy (Shim, 2006; Cho, 2011). The proactive policy started from the Kim Young-sam administration (1993–1997). Kim’s administration recognized the potential contribution of cultural industries to the economic growth. They reformed the Ministry 政治of Culture by shifting the policy from. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. regulation to promotion. The subsequent Kim Dae-jung administration (1998–2002). ‧. furthered the policies by developing the infrastructure of cultural industries and providing. y. Nat. er. io. sit. funding. This administration also established the Korea Culture and Content Agency in 2001. n. a l (cultural technology)i v with other five key technologies to enforce the policy of promoting CT n Ch. engchi U. (Shim, 2008). In the past decade, the Roh Moo-hyun administration (2003–2007) and the Lee Myung-bak administration (2008– 2012) continued to increase the competitiveness of the Korean Wave in global markets (Kwon & Kim, 2013). Nevertheless, Korean scholars of cultural industries accused the government of hypocrisy. Scholars criticized that even though both IT (Information Technology) and CT were important industries for South Korea, the governmental budgets for these two are remarkably different, as CT accounted only for 0.6 % and IT accounted for 22.5% (Shim, 2008).. 19.

(20) . East Asian Popular Culture East Asian popular culture was a term that Chua applied to “designate the development, production, exchange, flow and consumption of popular products between the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore” (2004: 201). Since the 1980s, the popular culture from different East Asian countries has crisscrossed quite frequently (Iwabuchi, 2010; Chua, 2010). For the TV dramas, the Chinese TV dramas produced by Hong Kong and Taiwan had. 治 “trendy drama” entered Taiwan and entered Singapore in the late 1980s and 政 the Japanese. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Southeast Asia in the 1990s. The Korean TV dramas first entered the economically advanced. ‧. locations like Hong Kong and Taiwan in the late 1990s. After being dubbed with subtitles in. y. Nat. er. io. sit. these locales, these Korean dramas entered other Chinese-speaking or ethnic Chinese. n. a l for pop music, Chinese v majority locations (Chua, 2010). As n i pop music from Taiwan and Ch. engchi U. Hong Kong have been entering China and South East Asia since the 1980s. Many of these East Asian pop cultural products may be produced under co-production agreement. For example, music companies in Taiwan can and may buy pop songs from South Korea, which would be dubbed and reproduced with Chinese lyrics (Noh, 2011). Moreover, different East Asian countries adapted Japanese manga as script for TV drama. For instance, the Chinese TV drama Meteor Garden in 2001 was based on the Japanese manga Hana yori Dango (Japanese: 花より男子). The manga was adapted into a. 20.

(21) . Japanese TV drama in 2005 and a Korean TV drama in 2008. Scholars believed all these different flows of pop culture have provided “a discursive construction of an ‘East Asian Popular culture’ as an object of analysis” (Chua, 2004: 202). Iwabuchi raised two positive issues brought by the rise of East Asian popular culture, the de-Americanization in popular culture and the increase of mutual understanding among East Asian countries. Firstly, Iwabuchi considered East Asian popular culture highlighted the de-Westernized and the de-Americanized productions and circulation in East Asia. The rise. 治global cultural relations of power. The may even challenge or reconfigure the政 current. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. cooperation in production and performance among different East Asian countries can be seen. ‧. from films to TV dramas and pop music. These cultural products would be able to reach the. y. Nat. er. io. sit. bigger markets in East Asia with the border-crossing cooperation (Iwabuchi, 2010).. n. a l the East Asian popular v Secondly, the circulation of culture increased mutual ni Ch. engchi U. understanding and provided self-reflexive dialogues among these Asian audiences (Iwabuchi, 2010: 200). For example, in research on Korean drama Winter Sonata and its fandom in Japan, many scholars found the Japanese audience perceived a totally different image towards South Korea through watching the drama (Hayashi, 2005; Mori, 2008). Many of the Japanese audience members overturned their previous prejudice towards South Korea, some even felt ashamed about what Japan did to Korea during the war (Hayashi, 2005: 49). Also, after consuming these popular cultural products, many of the audience members were. 21.

(22) . motivated to travel to foreign countries in order to have real experience (Hirata, 2008). For example, many audience members from Taiwan and Hong Kong a visited Jeju Island in South Korea after they watched the Korean historical TV drama Dae Jang Geum (Jewel in the Palace), since the island was the filming location (Kim, 2009). However, scholars (citation) have raised several problems concerning the East Asian popular cultures. The problems are stated as follows: the uneven flow of these popular cultures, the new international hierarchy of pop culture in East Asia, the similarity in ignoring. 治with the self-reflexive. minorities and the antagonistic nationalism政 brought. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. The first problem of the uneven flow was due to the asymmetric size of the markets in. ‧. East Asia. The ethnic Chinese was the majority in this area. Once the Korean and Japanese. y. Nat. er. io. sit. TV drama was dubbed with Chinese subtitle, it would be able to be broadcast in any market. n. v with a Chinese-speaking audience. aYet, l little of the Chinese n i cultural products have entered Ch. engchi U. the Korean and Japanese markets. Some historical incidents might have also caused the uneven flow, for example, South Korea had banned any import of Japanese cultural products due to the Japanese colonization from 1945 to 1998 (Chua and Iwabuchi, 2008). The second problem is the new international hierarchy of pop culture in East Asia. Pop culture is an unavoidable field of capitalist activities that requires marketing and huge capital. Hence, the rise of East Asian popular culture has unavoidably brought the new international. 22.

(23) . hierarchy to East Asia. Many big cities in East Asia have now replaced the West and become the new centers of cultural industries (Chua, 2004). The third problem is the similarity among these pop cultural products. In order to reach the biggest profit, once a script had successfully reached in one of the East Asian markets, the other markets might apply the same script with slight modification of the localization. The replication would make the previously ignored minorities of the local cultural products remain minorities on the screen of East Asian cultural products, like queer culture, ethnic minorities and migrants (Iwabuchi, 2010: 政 206).. 立. 治. 大. ‧ 國. 學. The last problem is the antagonistic nationalism brought with the self-reflexive and the. ‧. historical incidents. The self-reflexive may not only remind consumers of the guilt of. y. Nat. er. io. sit. invading but also the pain of war and the current stressed international relations. The colonial. n. i v countries, like China, South legacy and the cruelty of war havea l haunted Japan and nmany. Ch. engchi U. Korea, Malaysia and Singapore (Chua & Iwabuchi, 2008). Continuing territorial disputes of the Independent Island between Japan and South Korea and the Fishing Island among China, Taiwan, and Japan are another two problematic issues which will catalyze the antagonistic nationalism (Ryoo, 2009). Disagreements about the sovereignty of Taiwan between the Taiwan Straits have been another problematic issue as well. Taiwanese singer A-Mei has been banned in China for four years due to her performance of singing the national anthem at. 23.

(24) . the inauguration of the president Chen Shui-bian in 2000 (Tsai, 2008). These incidents would cause mutual hatred towards each other through the form of antagonistic nationalism. Other than the political incidents, the banal, mundane practices will accumulate the antagonistic nationalism as well. Local people would encounter the border-crossing cultural products in their everyday life. These products are equal to the reminder of the better international mobility of these foreign cultures in comparison to the inferior of the local (Iwabuchi, 2010). The modern technology has become the new battlefield for the antagonistic. 治 everywhere online (Iwabuchi, 2014). nationalism to occur. Hateful discourses can 政be seen. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. With the help of modern technology, almost every corner of the world can now witness. ‧. international events like film festivals and sporting events. These nations are often opponents. y. Nat. er. io. sit. of each other in these international arenas for their own national brand (Urry, 2003 as cited in. n. a l would be tired ofi these v Iwabuchi, 2014: 53). Local stakeholders huge amounts of increasing n Ch. engchi U. banal contacts of East Asian pop culture, like the daily scheduled Korean TV dramas and the non-stop media coverage of Korean celebrities. This would enable the antagonist nationalism to grow between the consumers and the non-consumers (Chua, 2010: 206). The rise of the East Asian popular culture provided opportunities for East Asian countries to recognize the power of pop cultural products in the name of national branding. These countries named their popular icons as national tourism ambassadors to promote tourism and by all means tried to sell their cultural products to other markets. The centers of. 24.

(25) . the East Asian popular culture apply market-oriented strategies to dump their products to other markets in the name of national branding. It is important to decide the boundaries between conducting national branding and dumping cultural products, or the growing antagonist nationalism would eliminate the positive self-reflexive and dialogues initiated by these East Asian pop cultures (Iwabuchi, 2010). Seeking East Asia in Korean Wave Part of the Korean Wave can be examined under the context as a flow of East Asian. 治 popular cultures. Cho (2011) conducted 政 the examination on the discourses of East Asia in. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Korean Wave from the Korean media and the academy. There are three approaches of the. ‧. discourse: cultural nationalist, neo-liberal capitalist and trans-local regionalist. Each of these. y. Nat. er. io. sit. three approaches views East Asia within the Korean Wave differently.. n. a l takes East Asia asi va single entity sharing the Asian The cultural nationalist approach n Ch. engchi U. values and situates the Korean Wave as a symbol of Korean cultural excellence and competence. The term Asian values means the Confucian values from the imperial China, such as the unbreakable family bonds, patriarchal relations, and pure love. Cultural nationalist often praises Korean Wave for nicely representing traditional moral values in modern, urban settings of Western lifestyle. For the neo-liberal capitalist approach, it acclaimed the importance of profit and of developing political strategies for continuing the Korean Wave, not only in Asia but also to. 25.

(26) . other regions around the world. Therefore, the approach has praised the effort of South Korea’s government in promoting Korean Wave. The approach takes East Asia as the most profitable market for the Korean Wave as well as a place that Korean Wave can be tested before entering other markets. As for the trans-local regionalism, it holds critical opinion towards the capitalist approach. The trans-local regionalist approach emphasizes mutual cultural flows and the establishment of a pan-Asian cultural infrastructure, including the pan-Asian identities. The trans-local regionalist points out the sub-imperial 政治nature of capitalist discourse about the. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Korean Wave and the hegemony of sub-cultural imperialism among Korean Wave discourses.. ‧. The trans-local regionalist believes the real value of East Asia in Korean Wave is the. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. (Cho, 2011).. sit. potential to build the Asian cultural blocs against hegemonic Euro-American pop culture. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. Cultural Hybridization and Korean Wave When it comes to hybridity, the term has often been used interchangeable with hybridization. However, García Canclini (2000) uses the term hybridization to refer the occurring process of hybridity. According to Canclini, it’s the process of hybridization that should be at the center of our attention. Canclini (2000) stated the descriptive meaning of hybridization is easy to understand as the different cultural mixings and the interlacing of the traditional and modern, of elite, popular and mass cultures. Yet, the explanatory power and. 26.

(27) . hermeneutic resource of hybridization would only show while situating it within structural relationships of causality or correlation. Canclini presented two utilities of hybridization to justify his statement, by using the hybridization as a social process and a process with no definite procedure of exchanging and fusion. First, Canclini used hybridization as a social process. Hybridization means not only “the simple fusion of discrete social structures or practices that existed separately: by combining, they generate new structures and new practices” (2000: 43). The process of hybridization can take place in art, everyday and in technological development, and the 政 life治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. process can arise from individual or collective creativity. By examining the empirical process. ‧. of hybridization would provide the approach to see the popular sectors cooperating with the. y. Nat. er. io. sit. hegemonic sectors in order to make the benefits for their interest (Canclini, 2000).. n. v Second, the hybridization is aa lprocess with no definite n i procedure of exchanging and Ch. engchi U. fusion. There are numerous possibilities in the process of hybridization; the process may take the form as stirring intercultural contradiction or promoting multicultural integration. Due to this situation, Canclini believes it’s important to investigate the hybridization with a typology with three different kinds of hybridization through diverse contexts and experiences. The three are: the hybridization in process of migration, the hybridization of cultural politics and the hybridization as an operation of market of communication. The previous two were raised due to the immigrant politics in colonized society; the last one however, is the most common. 27.

(28) . hybridization in contemporary time (Canclini, 2000). Korean Wave with the nature of bordercrossing consumption of Korean popular culture could be considered as the hybridization as an operation of market of communication. The reason why the hybridization as an operation of market of communication would occur in the first place is because of the desire of cultural industries in expanding markets. Today, because of the modern technology, the intercultural contacts are largely conducted on the mediating communication than the migration. The capital, goods and media message can. 治 have decided to expand their market, freely transfer the borders. Once the cultural 政 industries. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. adding and mixing different elements in their products to charm a larger audience has also. er. io. sit. y. Nat. together (Canclini, 2000).. ‧. become necessary. Consequently, the hybridization occurs while these elements are being put. n. a l the two major approaches v Kwon and Kim (2014) organized in explaining the popularity ni Ch. engchi U. of Korean Wave in East Asia. The two approaches are the cultural proximity and the cultural hybridization. The cultural proximity echoes with the cultural nationalist approach and believes the legacy of Confucianism in East Asia would be the answer to the popularity of Korean Wave. However, the cultural proximity failed to answer the recent popularity of Kpop in Thailand, Europe and America (Shin & Siriyuvasak, 2007; Kwon & Kim, 2013). Chua (2004) also claimed the cultural proximity failed to explain the popularity Korean Wave in Singapore. Even with the majority of ethnic Chinese in the population, Singaporeans had. 28.

(29) . stopped learning and practicing Confucianism in their every day lives for at least 40 years (2004: 202). Shim also stated, cultural proximity as the reason for the Korean Wave thriving in East Asia is not good enough. Nevertheless, proximity should not be the ancient value of Confucianism but the glimpse of the “vision of modernization in East Asian context” (2006: 40). Huang (2011) believed it would be more appropriate to reinterpret the cultural proximity as the sharing of contemporary modernity in East Asia. The vision of modernization that has blended Western and Asian values has brought out the other explanation of the popularity Korean Wave, the cultural hybridization. 政 of治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Cultural studies scholars tend to believe hybrid nature of Korean Wave products is the reason. ‧. for their popularity. The hybrid nature can be seen in many different aspects, like the mixture. y. Nat. er. io. sit. of western cultural genres and formats – for instance, music genres like hip-hop, rock and. n. a l dominant other, either v rhythm and blues inherited from the n i US or Japan – and the content Ch. engchi U. conveying the cosmopolitan imaginaries and sophisticated urban style (Lee, 2008). Shim (2006) and Ryoo (2009) applied Homi Bhabha’s (1994) definition of hybridization to explain the phenomenon of Korean Wave. For Bhabha, the hybridization exists in the places where cultural differences contact and conflict. The once stable identities have been disturbed by the hybridity, from past to present, from inside to outside and inclusion to exclusion. Bhabha posed the idea of the in-between spaces that was created and inhabited by hybrids, and the spaces for all cultures to conduct a continuous process of. 29.

(30) . hybridization. “He uses the term third space to call the in-between, incommensurable location where minority discourses intervene to preserve their strengths and peculiarity” (Bhabha, 1994 as cited from Ryoo, 2009:143). Ryoo believes that hybridization has become a universal feature of the current cultural production and consumption in both the globalization and localization of the culture industry. The space of the hybridity provides different discourses to conduct dialogue in a spatio-temporal zone of signification. Within this space, cultures generate new forms and invent new connections with each other (2009:143). Shim. 治 applied Kraidy’s (2002) idea to argue the notion of hybridity was “not the 政post-colonial. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. descriptive device but rather a communicative practice conducted by different actors with. ‧. different socio-political and economic arrangement” (as cited by Shim, 2006: 27). Since the. y. Nat. er. io. sit. hybridity is a communicative practice, Ryoo argued, in the case of Korean Wave, “the. n. a l cultural agents andi vactors interact and negotiate with hybridization of culture occurs as local n Ch. engchi U. global forms, using them as resources through which local peoples construct their own cultural spaces” (2009: 144). Korean Wave is the third place where the center, the global forms, and periphery, the local agents, would meet and negotiate to create the new identities (Ryoo, 2009). While Iwabuchi acknowledged that Korean Wave “translates western or American culture to fit Asian taste (2014: 51),” he believed it is also important to see ongoing interregional hybridization in East Asia. Different agents in popular culture, like capitals, actors,. 30.

(31) . singers and producers in the East Asia now have more opportunities to work across borders. Yet, the remade versions of the same production across different countries, like the TV drama Meteor Gardens, have not only showed the inter-Asian cultural adaption in common but also have shown the different interpretations of the East Asian modernity. The different interpretations of East Asian modernity again exposed the homogenized hybridity of Western format and the Asian values failed to fully address the different processes of hybridization in different East Asian countries. Iwabuchi (2014) applied the idea raised by Cho (2011) that the. 治 unique phenomenon, but an iteration of hybrid nature of “Korean Wave was not 政 a uniquely. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. East Asian pop culture” (as cited in Iwabuchi, 2014: 49). In other words, the Korean Wave. er. io. sit. Nat. Wave may serve as future nutrition for other Asian-Waves.. y. ‧. has inherited the East Asian modernity from other East Asian pop cultures and the Korean. n. al i v South Korea along with several The trans-local regionalist approach raised by Chonin Ch. engchi U. scholars in East Asia have argued that the East Asian popular culture and the Korean Wave have presented a very similar cultural geography in cultural products (Cho, 2011). The cultural geography would be attractive to different audiences across East Asia, since the content has presented the familiar East Asian modernity that is a sequel of consequences from different cultural hybridization. Scholars argue there is a possibility that the East Asian popular culture and its cultural geography may serve as the infrastructure for the pan-Asian identity to emerge. The argument echoed with Canclini’s statement, with hybridization “the. 31.

(32) . historical patrimonies can be understood through an open and changing way…and act as bridges of understanding between different societies (2000: 49).” Thus, the true value of Korean Wave as a cultural hybridization was not only its successful performance in different markets, but also its potential to act as a bridge with different cultures. Taiwan-South Korea Relations Taiwan and South Korea share many similarities in different aspects. In the traditional culture, both Taiwan and South Korea belonged to the Confucianism culture due to the. 治In contemporary time, both Taiwan and legacy of imperial China in history (Chua, 政2004).. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. South Korea were colonized by Japan for decades. Both of these two countries joined the. ‧. anti-communist side led by the United States after the Second World War. Both these two. y. Nat. er. io. sit. have been through the democratization over the past three decades (Huang, 2008). In the. n. v economic aspect, both of them werea each known as the one l n i of the four rapidly industrialized Ch. engchi U. economic entities, the Asian dragons in the 1970s. For the past two decades, both these two have played important roles in information and communication technologies (Wang, 2007). When it comes to national pastime, there has been a long rivalry in the international sporting events of baseball, basketball and Taekwondo between the two. Just like with the sporting events, many of these similarities have unavoidably brought rivalry to these two countries. Taiwanese politicians and the mainstream media have been very eager in calling South Korea our biggest enemy in the international society due to the. 32.

(33) . competition of many industries between Taiwan and South Korea. In the early 2000s, South Korea’s Gross Domestic Product transcended Taiwan’s. Samsung has been recognized as the world’s leading brand in the smartphone industry. The successful brand Samsung has shown South Korea’s determination in its industrial transition (Groabart, 2013). South Korea did not only succeed in leading the information technology, but also has been known as a country performing excellently in the cultural aspects. Korean Wave is globally welcome. There are fans of Korean Wave from East Asia to South America. An. 治 of Korean Wave at Harvard University actress, Park Jung Suk who is also a guest 政lecturer. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. had once made the following statement in a speech, “Korea has long been influenced by. er. io. sit. Nat. The Overwhelming Korean Wave in Taiwan. y. ‧. others, it’s now our time to influence others” (Tudor, 2012: Page numbers).. n. al v According to Liao’s study (2013), which tracks the n i development of Korean popular Ch. engchi U. music in Taiwan, the latest stage of Korean Wave started from 2009 when the male idol group Super Junior and their hit song Sorry Sorry swept Taiwan. Following the Super Junior hit, a myriad of Korean idol groups have become popular in Taiwan: Wonder Girls, Girl’s Generation, 2NE1 and Big Bang. The growing number of Korean Wave star events and the Korean TV dramas from 2009 to 2013 in Taiwan can be seen in Table 1. These events include fan-meetings, concerts and press conferences. As for the numbers of TV drama, it includes the premiere and the. 33.

(34) . reruns in the channels of terrestrial television, cable television and set-top box. Due to the rising cost of syndication fees, the number of TV dramas actually declined in 2012. The highest fees came to 400,000 US dollars per episode in 2012 (CNyes, 2012). At the same time, Korean pop music was becoming more popular in Taiwan. Forty-seven new vocal groups debuted in 2012. These groups were well trained and consisted of members with advanced foreign-language skills, thus were able to draw following abroad quickly (Chen, 2014). Table 1. 立. 政治大 2009. 2010. 2011. 17. 22. 28. 41. 44. 44. 58. 59. 76. y. 2014. sit al. n. TV dramas. 2013. er. io. (Concerts, fan-meetings and press conferences). 2012. ‧. Nat. Events. ‧ 國. Year. 學. Growing Number of Korean Wave products in Taiwan by year. Ch. engchi. 63. 69. i Un. v. 78. (Serial dramas, variety shows and pop music live programs) Source: organized by this research Liao also identified the problems brought by the recent sensation of Korean popular music in Taiwan. In her statement, in order to gain higher viewership, many Taiwanese TV channels tended to buy Korean variety shows to broadcast. Thus, the Korean variety shows have replaced their local counterparts. Statistics showed that of the 66 new TV programs. 34.

(35) . aired in 2010, 22 were bought from South Korea (Liao, 2013). Taiwanese media also exceedingly covered the hype brought out by the Korean Wave. In addition to the replacement problem, Taiwanese actors in 2002 launched a protest against the long hours of Korean TV dramas on TV channels. In 2006 and 2011, the Government Information Office and the National Communication Commission in Taiwan, had both tried to regulate the TV stations and keep them from broadcasting too many Korean TV programs. Yet, these stations opposed to the regulations, claiming their business would. 治 aborted. be damaged. Both of the two proposals were 政eventually. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Taiwanese Nationalistic Antagonism towards South Korea. ‧. While the different cultures have encountered animosity with each other, there are. y. Nat. er. io. sit. possibilities that a confrontation would emerge (Canclini, 2000). The previously competing. n. al iv and later inferior performance in economics of Taiwan inncomparison to South Korea and the Ch. engchi U. increasing encounter of Korean Wave in everyday life have both catalyzed the Taiwanese antagonist nationalism towards South Korea. According Ernest Gellner’s (2008) definition, “nationalism is primarily a political principle, when holds that the political and the national unit should be congruent (P. 1).” He further explained nationalism as “a sentiment, or as a movement, can best be defined in terms of this principle. Nationalist sentiment is the feeling of anger aroused by the violation of the principle, or the feeling of satisfaction aroused by its fulfillment. A nationalist movement is. 35.

(36) . one actuated by a sentiment of this kind (2008:1).” Hence, in a competing relation with South Korea in industries and international trade, any pro-Korea movement may arouse nationalistic sentiment in Taiwan. The nationalists absolutely would take the consumption of Korean Wave as an offence. Gellner (2008) offers two definitions of nation in order to help to understand the concept. The first definitions explain nation with “two men are of the same nation if and only if they share the same culture, where culture in turn means a system of ideas and signs and associations and ways of behaving and communicating.” Miscevic’s (2000) definition of a 政治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. nation shares the same essential idea with Gellner, that is, “everybody agrees that various. ‧. combinations of various fundamental traits, such as common language, history, customs,. y. Nat. er. io. sit. values and religious denomination enable each separate group to claim that it form a nation (p.. n. a l states “two men are i of v 7).” Yet, Gellner’s second definition n the same nation if and only if Ch. engchi U. they recognize each other as belonging to the same nation. In other words, nations are artifacts of men’s convictions and loyalties and solidarities. (2008: 98)” The definitions given by Gellner and Miscevic have indicated “it is their recognition of each other as fellows of this kind that turns them into a nation, and not the other shared attributes (Miscevic, 2000:7).” The statement has echoed with the definition that Benedict Anderson (1991) has described to nation as “an imagined community.”. 36.

(37) . Nationalists often ask people to fulfill their obligation to their nations, yet very little of imaginary relations involved with obligation (Miscevic, 2000). Even though the nature of a nation is the imaginary community, Miscevic showed, “the nationalists are usually quite watchful about the kind of culture it protects and promotes, and about the kind of attitude people have to their nation-state. (2000: 2)” In his findings, with differences of political circumstance, nationalism can be performed in different ways. One possibility would be isolationism, which is to “keep your country protected from foreign influences. (2000:2)” At the same time, Miscevic points out that political nationalism is closely tied to nationalism in 政治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. culture, which insists upon the preservation and transmission of a given culture in its pure. ‧. form: artistic creation, education, and research. Once the given culture is failing to dedicate. y. Nat. er. io. sit. itself with this goal often has to face condemn from such nationalist enthusiasm. Such. n. a l in Taiwan when it comes v nationalist enthusiasm would take place to South Korea, most of the ni Ch. engchi U. time in the form of antagonism. In Taiwan, the nationalistic antagonism may not always take place between Korean people and Taiwanese people, but it largely occurs between Korean Wave consumers and non-consumers. Many of these consumers of Korean Wave in Taiwan are female. These female consumers are often depicted by the mainstream media in negative ways while having to face condemnation from the non-consumers. In order to understand these female. 37.

(38) . consumers and their relations with the nationalistic antagonism, it is necessary to examine the role that women played in the process of nationalism. In most of the discourse of nationalism, women are often irrelevant. Even if women did participate in the national, ethnic, and state process and practices, their roles are limited. Anne McClintock applied Yuval-Davis and Anthias’ (1989) finding, identifying five ways for women to implicate in nationalism: as biological producers of members of national collectivities; as reproducers of the boundaries of national groups (through restrictions on sexual or marital relations); as active transmitter 政治and producers of the national culture; as. 大. 立. ‧ 國. ‧. (1993: 62-63).. 學. symbolic signifiers of national difference; and as active participants in national struggles. y. Nat. er. io. sit. Nagel (1998) quoted Cynthia Enloe’s (1990) observation that “nationalism has. n. a l memory, masculinized v typically sprung from masculinized n i humiliation and masculinized Ch. engchi U. hope (p. 244).” Nagel also summarized Enloe’s arguments that women played minor and often symbolic roles in the nationalist movements and conflicts and these roles are either icons of nationhood that need to be defended or the booty of war that are disgraced. Men are the real actors who are defending freedom, honor, homeland and their women (1998: 244). McClintock (1993) also stated it is quite often in nationalisms, women are “subsumed symbolically into the national body politic as its boundary and metaphoric limit” but “excluded from direct action as national citizens (p. 62).” Thus, McClintock believed. 38.

(39) . “women are typically construed as the symbolic bearers of the nation, but are denied any direct relation to national agency (1993: 62).” McClintock further analyzed that gender has become an important division in the representation of nationalism. Women represent the authentic body of the national tradition and this representation is often inert, backward-looking and natural. Women are embodying the conservative principle of continuity of nationalism. Men represent exactly the opposite. Men represent the agent of the national modernity and are those whom embodying. 治of discontinuity (1993:66). This finding nationalism’s progressive, revolutionary 政 principle. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. echoed with Yang’s (2008) result in analyzing the public discourse of Korean Wave in. ‧. Taiwan. She found that there have been public discourses in Taiwan that inclined to assume. y. Nat. er. io. sit. female Taiwanese are prone to the invasion of Korean Wave. Later, the public discourses. n. al v deceived by the superficial would present women and their fanatic behaviors as victims ni Ch. engchi U. singers or actors of Korean Wave. Cultural Hybridization as Resolution Ryoo (2009) and Shim (2006) admitted the importance of the hybridization did not exist in the descriptive meaning of the fusion of different cultures, but the communicative practices that different agents had conducted during the hybridization. People, the audience or the consumer, play a role as the agent in the hybridization as well. The hybridization consists of exchange, crossing and mutual entanglements that Ang believed “it implies a. 39.

(40) . softening of the boundaries between people” (2003: 147). The encounter between people would ultimately influence who they are going to be in the future. The encounter may not take a peaceful form; it can be a confrontation as well. However, as long as both sides of the encounter wish to avoid wars, they will negotiate with each other. The hybridization would thus occur within the negotiation (Ang, 2003). Based on the reviews, cultural hybridization may serve as bridge to enhance the mutual understanding between different cultures. In the aspect of production, Korean Wave provides. 治 modernity and presenting a cultural the cultural products combining the East 政 Asian. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. geography that may serve as the infrastructure for pan-Asian identity via its hybridization of. ‧. Korean, East Asian and Western culture. In the aspect of consumption, Korean Wave consists. y. Nat. er. io. sit. of different forms of cultural hybridization. Cultural hybridization not only takes place in. n. al v and non-consumers. Hostile consumption but also through the encounter between consumers ni Ch. engchi U. or not, these encounters include certain degrees of exchange of opinions and stances. Furthermore, by taking consumption as practice of cultural hybridization, it provides an approach to examine how Taiwanese consume Korean popular culture while acknowledging the cultural difference.. 40.

(41) . Chapter 3 Research Method. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. This research aims to understand Taiwanese consumers of Korean Wave and their. ‧. response to the nationalistic antagonism towards South Korea. The interviews are collected. y. Nat. er. io. sit. by in-depth interview. Since the research question requires the participants to answer. n. a l experiences in confronting v sensitive questions of their unpleasant the anti-Korea people, ni Ch. engchi U. intensive in-depth interviews may be able to provide more accurate responses to the question, and allow a flexible approach to gather insights from participants’ experience (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011, Dowell & Weitkamp, 2011). Participants I interviewed 12 female participants about their experience in the anti-Korea confrontations. I chose female interviewees for two reasons. First, previous researches and observations of Korean Wave news websites have shown that majority of the Korean TV. 41.

(42) . drama audiences are female, and the number of female visitors of these websites is four times more than male (Kpopn, 2014; Korean Star Daily, 2014). Secondly, previous research found that female audience members and fans were most likely to be more devoted to Korean popular cultures, sometimes even being accused as traitors by these harboring anti-Korea feelings people in Taiwan. Yang finds in her research that the public discourse in Taiwan tend to emphasize female are more prone to the invasion of Korean Wave. Yang also points out that the coverage of female Taiwanese fans in the entertainment page of newspapers have. 治 of their irrationality and their concern presented “women as the subordinate to men 政 because. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. about triviality (2008: 211).”. ‧. The potential participants are contacted through snowball sampling. I first contacted 5. y. Nat. er. io. sit. potential participants that I’m familiar with and asked them to recommend other potential. n. a l their personal experiences. v participants who are willing to discuss The snowball samplings ni Ch. engchi U. eventuate in 12 participants, age ranging widely from 15 to 65. With this range, it is helpful to see the different forms of confrontation that the participants have experienced as well as the different strategies they developed. All of the participants have consumed Korean Wave for at least three years, including Korean pop music and TV dramas. The participants include: one college student, three graduate students, five employees from various industries and three retirees. Four out of the eight non-students are college educated and four others hold master’s degrees or the. 42.

(43) . equivalent. As for the marital status, 4 participants are married and the other 8 are single. Ten participants had been to South Korea. All participants are Taiwanese and one of the students holds Japanese citizenships. The detailed information of the participants is listed in table 2. Table 2 Information of the participants. engchi. sit. y. ‧. Ch. 學. n. al. Married Married 政Single治 Married Married Single Single Single Single Single Single Single. Korean Wave related information Length of the Been to South Consumption of Korea or Not Korean Wave 8 years No 8 years Yes No 大 63 years years Yes 5 years Yes 5 years Yes 7 years Yes 7 years Yes 7 years Yes 7 years Yes 4 years No 4 years No. er. Marital Status. Master equivalent Master equivalent College Master 立 College Graduate student College College College Graduate student Graduate student College student. io. 65 63 61 39 30 30 26 26 26 26 25 23. Nat. Tang Cher Pin Punctum Kristy Claire Lualua Vanessa Gladys Naomi Ruby Yuki. Personal information Age Education Background. ‧ 國. Participant. i Un. v. Interviews Interviews are conducted in semi-structured questionnaires in order to gather information about the participant’s experiences of consumption. All participants are informed of the purpose of the interviews. The interview contains three sets of questions: their consumption of Korean Wave, their reaction towards the anti-Korean actions or discourses, and their anxiety about cultural identity, if any.. 43.

(44) . The first part of the interview is to comprehend whether Korean Wave has increased participants’ understanding of South Korea. The interviews began with a rather broad question to encourage the participants to share their experiences, followed by questions relating to South Korea. In doing so, I hoped to understand if their newly-learned understandings of South Korea influence the way they respond to the confrontation. In the second part, regarding the anti-Korea discourse or action, two different antiKorea incidents would be briefly mentioned to solicit their opinion. The first incident was about a local administrator in Taoyuan and called to boycott all Korean products in any 政who 治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. purchase with government employee in 2010. The boycott was to respond to a Samsung’s. ‧. unethical behavior in revealing the Taiwanese company for fixing flat panel prices to EU.. y. Nat. er. io. sit. The second incident was related to a Taiwanese female taekwondo player who lost her. n. a l in the Asian Games v qualification due to an invalid equipment n i at Guangzhou. It was generally Ch. engchi U. believed that her disqualification was the result of a conspiracy of South Korean team, which led to a series of anti-Korea incidents in Taiwan, including throwing eggs to Korean students burning Korean goods in public, and restaurants refusing Korean guests. I also ask them to share disagreements or confrontations that other people hold against their consumption of Korean Wave. I also ask about their strategies in responding to these matters. Furthermore, the participants’ emotions in response to anti-Korea people are discussed and analyzed as well.. 44.

(45) . The last part of the interview revisits the findings from previous research conducted by Jiang (2004), focusing on how these participants’ opinions towards the Korean Wave and themselves as Korean Wave consumers have shifted after nearly a decade. Jiang previously found the phenomenon of “the more they consume they’ve done, the more guilty they felt” among interviewees (2004: 160). For the participants tend to feel ambivalent anxiety of cultural identity and affective consumption of Korean Wave, it is necessary to understand how the anti-Korea discourse in Taiwan has influenced their self positions with the other, and. 治 whether or not a similar guilt dwelled in their 政 consumption.. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Most of the interviews were conducted in face-to-face settings. Three interviews were. ‧. conducted through the help of Skype and Line. The interviews were all audio-recorded and. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. transcribed. The questions of the interviews can be seen in the Appendix.. Ch. engchi. 45. i Un. v.

(46) . Chapter 4 Living between Enthusiasm and Antagonism. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. The iconic Korean pop music singer Psy and his famous song Gangnam Style has set a. ‧. new world record: the music video of Gangnam Style has become the first YouTube video to. y. Nat. er. io. sit. receive two billion views, with Justin Bieber’s popular song Baby in second place, one billion. n. a l The Korean Wave hasi v swept the world. In Taiwan, views behind (Khatchatourian, 2013). n Ch. engchi U. fifteen years after it first appeared in the late 1990s, the Korean Wave is now a part of the daily life of Taiwanese people, whether or not they perceive it in a positive light. Alternation of East Asian Popular Cultures in Taiwan Taiwan has participated in East Asian popular cultures for the past three decades. As an exporter, Taiwan has produced TV dramas and Chinese pop music for the PRC and Southeast Asia (Chua, 2010). Taiwan has also been a prominent market, with Hong Kong movies and. 46.

(47) . TV dramas, Japanese manga, TV dramas, and pop music, and the Korean Wave all having played very important roles in the popular culture of Taiwan. With regards to the consumption of the Korean Wave, Korean pop music and Korean TV dramas are the two major categories mentioned by the interviewees. The interviewees remark that they have watched not only Korean TV dramas but also TV dramas from other places like the US, Japan, and China, and they explain how they started to watch Korean dramas. In particular, two of the participants compare Japanese TV dramas with their Korean. 治 counterparts. These two participants, Kristy mention that they find Japanese 政and Punctum,. ‧ 國. 學. dramas to be “very disappointing”.. 大. 立. ‧. Punctum is 39 years old and an employee in the publishing industry. Kristy is 31 years. y. Nat. er. io. sit. old and an employee in the financial sector. They have both watched Japanese drama for. n. a l TV dramas to be more v relaxing and to entertain more than a decade, yet they find Korean ni Ch. engchi U. them more than Japanese TV dramas. Punctum says: Back in the 1990s, the Japanese TV dramas were really amazing, for example: Tokyo Love Story, Long Vacation… For the past couple of years, there were some nice Japanese TV dramas from time to time, however these dramas always turn out to discuss some heavy social issues. However, when watching TV after a day’s work, I’m looking for more entertainment rather than some profound discussion of issues of social justice.. 47.

(48) . Kristy finds that Japanese TV dramas now face certain problems: There are too many adapted works. Some of the adapted works are really good. On the other hand, those original TV dramas are mostly very absurd, especially those romantic ones. They (Japanese TV dramas) wish to replicate those previously popular TV dramas, but mostly have failed. It is still very common for Kristy to watch Hong Kong and Japanese TV dramas. She has watched them since she was a teenager studying in Australia. However, she claims that there is always something new for her in Korean TV dramas. She says: 政治. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. It’s weird for me to hear some Taiwanese people criticizing Korean TV dramas as. ‧. clichés. Actually there are special elements inside every popular Korean TV drama.. y. Nat. er. io. sit. Taiwanese people love to make fun of Korean TV drama plots of incurable illness and. n. al v car accidents. These plots, honestly, still exist, but are n i now presented in a different way. Ch. engchi U. In other words, Korean TV dramas are unlike their Japanese counterparts, they continuously evolve. Naomi, a 26-year-old graduate student, does not think there is anything wrong with the Japanese programs, but simply mentions that she prefers Korean TV programs to Japanese ones when watching TV. Naomi says: “If I was looking for something to watch while eating my lunch, I will now prefer a Korean TV program to a Japanese one. I used to watch Japanese programs, but I guess my taste in TV programs has changed now.”. 48.

(49) . The comparison between South Korea and Japan is not unique to TV dramas. The 23year-old interviewee Yuki has been a fan of the Japanese idol group W-inds for a decade. She became a fan of the Korean idol group TVXQ four years ago because these two groups became friends after TVXQ’s debut in Japan. She states, “After watching the performance of TVXQ, I am pretty sure that there is no Japanese idol group that can sing or dance better than them.” She also thinks that the Japanese company Johnny’s Entertainment does not really train its idols to be great singers even though they often have to sing on different occasions.. 治 but I don’t think that would happen “It’s common for Japanese idols not to sing 政live well,. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. with the Korean idols, at least not with TVXQ.”. ‧. Punctum also points out that Korean companies wish to sell as many products as. y. Nat. er. io. sit. possible to their audience members. Thus, these companies tend to ask their idols to sing and. n. a l may watch TV dramas v act at the same time. In this way, fans n i and buy the original soundtrack Ch. engchi U. albums because of the stars. She thinks Japanese companies are more inclined to let actors focus on acting and singers focus on singing. Aside from comparing the Korean Wave with Japanese culture, a comparison between the Korean Wave and its Taiwanese equivalents is also shown in the results of the interviews. Ruby, a 25-year-old graduate student, explains her love of watching the Korean variety show Running Man in the following statement:. 49.

(50) . The Korean stars are much more dedicated to their works in comparison with Taiwanese stars, they are much more willing to sacrifice their image as a handsome man or beautiful woman when they are on shows like Running Man or Sport Games of Stars. When it comes to soap operas, Ruby also thinks that even though soap opera stories are boring and ridiculous in both Korea and Taiwan, the production of Korean soap operas is much more refined than the production of Taiwanese soap operas. She states that she was. 治 amazed when she found out that several major companies in South Korea had 政 entertainment. 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. cooperated with each other in promoting the Korean Wave. “They could even host Korean. er. io. sit. Nat. people around Asia to join the Korean Wave.”. y. ‧. Wave concerts together in Europe and host auditions together just to find more talented. n. a l raise between the Korean v The comparisons that interviewees Wave and its counterparts ni Ch. engchi U. in East Asia demonstrate that there has been an alternation of East Asian popular cultures. Different East Asian popular cultures have been dominant in Taiwan at different times, and the Korean Wave is the most recent of these cultures. However, as many scholars have argued, the Korean Wave as a part of East Asian popular culture has been popular among different markets in East Asia because of its nature as an iteration of cultural hybridization (Cho, 2010; Iwabuchi, 2014), an East Asian version of Western modernity appealing in. 50.